Favorite Pickups

Favorite Pickups

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Posts: 1732

Apr 25 08 1:58 PM

Dark Lord of the Riff

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Don't forget to talk about the model you like.

Me, I like Duncan JBs for bridge and middle position humbuckers. I like Duncan Full Shred for neck position humbuckers. Duncan Hot Rails and Duncan
Vintage Rails for middle and neck position single-sized.

Other Duncans I'm hoping to check out are the Dimebucker and the Distortion.

I like the Screamin' Demon in the bridge, and I currently have a Jazz in the neck, both wired for coil spliting, although I rarely use the neck pup! I also
have a JB and a couple of passive EMGs somewhere in the house.

For what it is worth, I tried a Dimebucker that I picked up at GC, and put it in my RG 570 for a few months, and found it to be the noisiest, most unforgiving
pick up ever. Now...to give credit to where it is due, none of the noise was fault of the p-up, but in my own sloppyness of playing. That sucker was so
sensitive, it could pick up on a hair raising on your hand...but under command of someone that knew what they were doing, it is probably a flat out evil little
pick-up.
The Bill Lawrence rail in my Washburn has a nice, forgiving personality. Plus it has the push/pull pot, that does something to the sound, but I am not a fan of
it. Not quite sure what the "splitting" thing does.

I had to go with Duncan's! Super Distortion. DiMarzio was a close second though, because the ones in my Ibanez scream! I'm thinking about changing a
couple pickups on two guitars, and I might go with a Screamin' Demon for a start in the bridge of the Explorer.

Has anyone else had a problem with DiMarzio's squealing like a pig with feedback (and not in a good way)?

I've never had a 'major' problem, but yes, I do get unwanted feedback sometimes if I'm crankin' it up loud. Now my brother's
FenderTelecaster is another story! I'll never jam that thing again in a live setting. Horrible pickups! Clean... it sounds great though.

Corporate Exhaust wrote:
For what it is worth, I tried a Dimebucker that I picked up at GC, and put it in my RG 570 for a few months, and found it to be the noisiest, most
unforgiving pick up ever. Now...to give credit to where it is due, none of the noise was fault of the p-up, but in my own sloppyness of playing. That sucker
was so sensitive, it could pick up on a hair raising on your hand...but under command of someone that knew what they were doing, it is probably a flat out
evil little pick-up.
The Bill Lawrence rail in my Washburn has a nice, forgiving personality. Plus it has the push/pull pot, that does something to the sound, but I am not a fan
of it. Not quite sure what the "splitting" thing does.

-CE

Is your Lawrence pickup the same model that Dime played for so many years and modeled the Dimebucker after?

My N2 came with the generic Washburn pickups in it. I have a JB in the bridge right now, but always thought it would be cool to put the Dimebucker in there to
get it closer to the Nuno sound.

Your description of the Dimebucker sounds a bit like my experience with the DiMarzio X2N, which I actually liked. The custom pickup in the PRS Tremonti
Singlecut is also a bit loud and very sensitive... not that it's a bad thing... just different than the others in the stable.

Speaking of DiMarzio pickups, has anyone had any experience or heard anything about any of the 7-string pickups that DiMarzio puts out? The regular Blaze
pickups that came in the Universe seem a little flat and sterile for my taste. I talked to Seymour (Duncan) about it way back in the day, but it would've
been a custom order for over $300 back in the day. Since then, I thought I would keep it all stock.

As the 7-string models are a bit more common, the prices for 7-pole pickups have dropped. When I think about how little I play it, maybe some new pickups might
breathe some life back in the old girl. Since we've been talking about how DiMarzios seems to be a natural fit for Ibanez, I looked and they have the
following in 7-string versions:

Well, I like the X2N. You have to be real careful about adjusting it though, because it's so powerful it can easily push too much signal and turn to mud.
However, lowering it fixes that and it becomes a sledgehammer. It's responsive to touch, you can start picking notes hard and really notice a difference!

You might take a look at the new Duncan Blackouts. I believe they're making those in a seven-string version and Seymour claims they're not sterile like
the EMG's.

I put a Fernandes sustainer PU in the neck position and a Seymor Duncan Screamin Deamon in the bridge and it`s sounds like moose balls!Thats slang for Pretty
f#$&in Awesome!!!! Also recently I played a Jackson guitar with the sustainiac pick up and that sounds Great too !! JF

JoeyFingers wrote:
I put a Fernandes sustainer PU in the neck position and a Seymor Duncan Screamin Deamon in the bridge and it`s sounds like moose balls!Thats slang for Pretty
f#$&in Awesome!!!! Also recently I played a Jackson guitar with the sustainiac pick up and that sounds Great too !! JF

I second the Demon and maybe my Gibson 57s for the warm tone. As I big Criss Oliva fan i also really llike the Bartolini pickups, especially the single
coil.

It is a 6 string. My 7VWH is a 2004 model and I believe it is an Alder body. I know the old JEM 777s had a basswood body.

The only guitar that I have ever played that sounded better than the 7V with Evos was the ESP Skull & Snakes. They were both around the same price at the
time I think.

I have a Screamin' Demon in an old Kramer and it sounds good, but not as good as the 7V and definitely not as good as in Ol' Haji!

Evos are very very clear, no mud at all. That can be a blessing and a curse. But they have such incredible resonance when you hold a note. And you can often
get the decay to turn into a beautiful singing feedback.

Of course, rhythm tends to be less crunchy, but still crisp.

Left is the JEM 7VWH with Evos. Right is a 1981 Korean made Kramer I bought for 250 bucks. I replaced the pick-up with a Screamin' Demon. Still a piece
o' shit, but sounds better and has a nice paintjob!

I wanted to throw a shout out for the Mighty Mite Motherbucker Bridge Pickup. People don't give it a lot of credit because it's sold
at a low price - but it's an awesome pickup. Very good for cleaning up a muddy guitar because it has a tight bottom end. 21.5k resistance and 530m output!
Usually available for $30 or less shipped on eBay. Check out the Harmony Central reviews.

Heem6"Being in Aerosmith is like being at a dog fight. And both dogs bite you." Brad
Whitford

Wanted to re-visit this thread, as I've been doing some swapping around of some pickups over the past few months.

I'd never been totally happy with the Pearly Gates in the Strat, so I put a spare JB in there that had been sitting around. Then I wanted to pull the
Demons from the 4 guitars I have them in and retrofit with JBs or Distortions... maybe even a Duncan Custom. The 1st score was a white Duncan Distortion, so I
throw that one in the Strat, which frees up a JB, which ends up in the Hamer Centaura.

Then I get my hands on a Lawrence 500-XL that goes in the N2. During that install, I discover I'd put a Duncan '59 in the neck (I'd totally
forgotten!), so now it has the N4 pickups in it. I'm really diggin the 500-XL in that guitar. I can see how Nuno and Dime got those sounds from it. Not
gonna go swapping out everything for that one, but it's exactly what I was hoping for in that guitar.

The N2 had a zebra Duncan JBJ in there. The zebra JBs were typically used by Kramer in the Barettas only, but it already has an all black JBJ in there, and the
zebra is a nice match for the Stagemaster. The JBJ factor got me curious, so I checked and every original Kramer I have has a JBJ in the bridge (other than the
Full Shred in the NightSwan and the Kramer I built, which has a f-spaced JB). I also found out the Duncan I put in the Charvel Predator is also a JBJ. Very
cool.

Before I'm done, I'm hoping to get a JB or Distorion in 2 of the ESPs. I'm also playing with the idea of throwing a DiMarzio D Sonic in the Charvel
(since it's tuned to D) and feeing up that JBJ. Or if I can get my hands on a Duncan Custom, that'll free up a JB from somewhere as well.

A fun part of this is that I'm getting to totally re-wire the respective guitars... as well, as picking up a few new wiring tricks along the way.

Heem mentioned the JB and the Distortion is the same pickup with a different magnet. Very cool. I can say that the JB cleans up nicer than the Distortion when
split, which almost surprised me.